Let's face it–Housekeepers play an extremely important role in every hotel's success. The second guests walk through the door they begin analyzing the cleanliness of their room. If their room isn't spotless, there's a good chance they will not come back to your property again. This is why hiring a motivated, intelligent, polite housekeeping staff is vital to a hotel's success. Here are some tips & interview questions that should help you find a great housekeeping staff.

Background Check

To begin with, before interviewing any candidate, run a background search on them. This will help weed out any bad candidates before interviewing them, saving you time & money. Many states and counties publish legal records online for free, while other states charge a few dollars for the service. Running a check can reveal previous legal troubles. For example, if your candidate has a history of theft, then you may want to reconsider hiring them as your housekeeper, where they will have lots of chances to steal from your guests.

Facebook can also be a great background research tool since many people reveal personal information on the social network. As such, Facebook pages can provide a good insight into the candidate's personality and work ethic. If you locate a candidate's page, and it is public–meaning anyone can view their page - it's fair to take everything they have listed into consideration. Look at their profile - what are their interests? Does what they have listed on their application match what is on their Facebook page? Are there personal pictures on their page - if so, is the candidate involved in any questionable activities? Have they posted and negative or inappropriate material? While some people find checking Facebook pages unfair, it is a public website and fair game. If a candidate doesn't want you to find out something, they shouldn't have posted in on Facebook or online to begin with.

Interview Questions

Once you have done your background research and are comfortable with the candidate, it's time for the interview. We won't try and tell you how to perform the interview, since each interviewer has their own style, but here is a list of housekeeping specific interview questions that you might consider asking:

• What makes you a more qualified housekeeper than the other candidates?

• What are the most important skills needed to be a housekeeper?

• Why do you want to be a housekeeper?

A candidate who is willing to take any job is totally different than a candidate who is hoping that becoming a housekeeper will help them learn more about the hotel business in hopes of one day becoming a hotel manager. Their motivation and quality of work will differ accordingly.

• How long should it take to clean a guest room?

• How would you react to a guest screaming at you?

Guests and housekeepers interact often. Your housekeepers must be able to deal with all types of guests–nice or rude.

• How would you handle being asked to re-clean a room?

If the candidate takes offense to being asked to fix their work, think twice about hiring them. An ideal candidate should take the situation as a learning experience and express their desire to improve–rather than being defensive or objectionable.

• How would you handle a guest that demands extra soaps, pillows, etc.?

• How do you measure your success as a housekeeper?

• What would you do if you were cleaning a room and damaged a guest's belongings?

Whatever their answer, it had better include something about honesty…

Expectations

Answers to each of these questions should give you a good understanding of the candidate, their motivations, and their likelihood of success as your housekeeper. However, before hiring any candidate, take some time to set your expectations with them. Unless you explicitly tell your candidate what to expect as your employee, there is no way they will know. If you want the room dusted after every guest, say so. Don't just expect your new hire to dust every day. The more detail you provide, the better your new employee will perform. It is up to you to make sure they know what is expected of them and by discussing expectations prior to hiring, there shouldn't be any surprises. Also, by discussing your expectations with the candidate, you give the employee the chance to decide if they want to work for you, under your rules. If they can't live with your expectations, they shouldn't work for you - but it's better to find this out during the interview, than to hire the employee and find out later.

Several of the UK’s largest hotel companies have dismissed suggestions that the sub-contracting of housekeeping services by agencies has led to the exploitation and abuse of staff in London hotels.

Hilton Worldwide, the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG), Travelodge and Premier Inn, who all outsource some of their housekeeping, were responding to allegations, made at a parliamentary reception, that many housekeepers who are recruited by agencies to work within the capital’s hotels are often expected to work for less than the minimum wage.

Kevin Curran of the hotel workers branch of the Unite union claimed that in some hotels housekeepers were expected to clean a minimum of 16 rooms during their eight-hour shift. If they are unable to complete the quota – often without taking any breaks during the day – they are expected to stay on to finish the job with no extra pay. As a result, the workers, who are largely being paid minimum wages, are, in effect, working for less than the minimum wage.

As a result of long hours and undertaking hard physical work, Curran explained that many housekeepers were "suffering from ill health, often with back and shoulder problems and mental health issues because they are unable to spend any time with their children."

Hosted by Labour MP John Cryer, the meeting heard that a survey carried out by Unite showed that 84 out of 100 housekeepers were taking painkillers before they went to work, while many believed that they would be unable to carry on working beyond the age of 50 because of stress.

Also speaking at the meeting, Joanna Ewart-James of Staff Wanted Initiative (SWI), set up by the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) and Anti-Slavery International, explained that housekeepers were vulnerable because "many are migrant workers who often lack knowledge of their rights, have little cultural awareness and a language barrier".

Curran said that many hoteliers believed that because they were not employing the housekeepers directly they were not responsible for their welfare.

"We are very keen to talk to scrupulous employers who want to see a change," he explained. "But at the moment they won’t talk to us."

Premier Inn was the only hotel group which would discuss the number of bedrooms housekeepers were expected to clean, saying that, in agreement with the agencies, an experienced room attendant would clean an average of 14 rooms per shift, with a new attendant being given six to eight rooms.

Mike Reilly, director of human resources, UK & Ireland managed operations, IHG, said that agency staff were included within the commitment the company made last year to become a London Living Wage employer, which would ensure all workers were paid above the National Minimum Wage.

He said the number of rooms housekeepers cleaned during a shift was driven by the length of the shift. "If we were made aware of any concerns we would discuss the matter with the agencies and, if necessary, invoke financial penalties for non-compliance to our supplier agreements."

Hilton Worldwide said that it took its responsibilities for the 14,500 people employed at its 112 hotels across the country very seriously.

"At any hotels where the outsourcing of housekeeping is undertaken, we conduct a thorough procurement review process and we require all suppliers to fully comply with all employment laws and regulations," a spokesperson said.

At Premier Inn, where only 20% of all housekeeping services across its 650 hotels, are provided by agencies, a hotel services manager is responsible for ensuring that agencies pay the National Minimum Wage, provide uniforms to staff and that pay is not linked to the provision of accommodation.

- See more at: http://www.catererandhotelkeeper.co.uk/articles/30/1/2013/347230/hotel-groups-deny-exploitation-of-housekeeping-agency-staff.htm#sthash.41bCDRYZ.dpuf

It’s very rare that I stay in a hotel anymore. After 7 years as a Tour Manager, I have stayed in more hotel rooms than I can count and hotel vacations really aren’t my thing, but I always refuse to let housekeeping clean my room when I stay in a hotel.

Why do I refuse to let housekeeping clean my room? I don’t think housekeepers are on top of their duties as I have had a few experiences that I will share with you. One of them is especially gross so beware.

When I get my key and go into my room, I put my carry-on bag on the table, and get out my sanitizing wipes.

Why I Refuse To Let Housekeeping Clean My Room When I Stay In A Hotel

January 16, 2013 By Roni 27 Comments

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It’s very rare that I stay in a hotel anymore. After 7 years as a Tour Manager, I have stayed in more hotel rooms than I can count and hotel vacations really aren’t my thing, but I always refuse to let housekeeping clean my room when I stay in a hotel.

Why do I refuse to let housekeeping clean my room? I don’t think housekeepers are on top of their duties as I have had a few experiences that I will share with you. One of them is especially gross so beware.

When I get my key and go into my room, I put my carry-on bag on the table, and get out my sanitizing wipes.

I carry these with me all the time, even when I’m not traveling. Here are the things I sanitize:

1. Remote Control

2. All knobs in the room

3. all light fixtures in the room

4. The locks on the door

5. toilet seat and handle

6. faucet handles

7. Any chairs or couches

Now, here are a couple of reasons why I sanitize my room and why I won’t let housekeeping in my room to clean up.

1. I walked into my room one day when the housekeeper was there (this was in a 5 star hotel). No problem, I was looking for something in my suitcase and I happen to look up and notice the housekeeper was coming out of the bathroom with a rag in her hand and immediately went to clean the nightstand…with the same rag. That. Is. Gross. Just nasty.

I mean, think about it, if she just finished cleaning my toilet that my booty was on and then came and cleaned my bedroom with the same rag, was that the same rag from the last room she cleaned? From the last toilet she cleaned? So she uses the same rag to clean my toilet as she used to clean the toilet of someone I don’t know, someone who sat their naked possible sweaty butt on their toilet? No thank you.

So, when I check into my room, I do the thorough wipe down and when I leave I put the do not disturb sign on the door and housekeeping does not come back into my room. I only ask for new towels and toilet paper if I happen to run out.

2. Now this one is really gross. I was in a hotel room in Paris, at a very high end hotel off The Champs Elysses. (This was before my ban on housekeeping) Housekeeping had come into my room and it was nice and clean. I went into the bathroom because I had eaten breakfast and I wanted to brush my teeth before I had to meet my guests downstairs so I picked up my toothbrush and started to brush. Toothbrush was in my mouth and a few strokes had been taken. When all of a sudden I realized that this wasn’t my toothbrush. I took it out of my mouth and it was a toothbrush from housekeeping. Something they use to clean cracks and crevices (and I refuse to think about the other things it may have cleaned). This brush had ‘mistakenly’ been put on my sink and I had put it in my mouth.

„This article is from the IWIH Archive. Original publish date: November 28, 2011"

When a guest enters a hotel lobby and finds it clean, a housekeeper is responsible for that. When a guest enters a hotel room and finds the bed made, the bathroom clean and fresh linens available to use, a housekeeper is responsible for that. Behind every clean bathroom and every vacuumed floor in a hotel there can be found a housekeeper that has done their job. Without clean rooms hotels would not be able to rent out rooms and without housekeeper the rooms would not get cleaned. This position is an extremely important part of the hospitality industry but does the pay reflect the importance and hard work of housekeeping?

Hotel Housekeepers have a variety of duties that are expected of them to complete on a daily basis. While each hotel has different amounts of work expected from housekeepers some of the basic work stay the same throughout the hospitality industry. A housekeeper takes a room left at various degrees of dirtiness from previous room occupants and transforms it into a clean, attractive haven for the next occupants. The expectation for this transformation to occur is under 20 minutes with some hotels even expecting as low as an 11 minute time frame for housekeepers to finish rooms. With the expectation of approximately 4 rooms an hour housekeepers can be expected to clean as many as 28-32 rooms in a day. Even if a guest left the room veritable untouched a housekeeper must still clean all areas of the hotel room. This includes but is not limited to making beds, cleaning bathrooms and stocking amenities. This short list of what a housekeeper does when cleaning a hotel room does not come close to describing the actual work that a housekeeper must do in just one hotel room.

Housekeeping is a very physical job where a housekeeper is expected to bend, lift, pull, push and stand for long periods of time. Just the housekeeping cart alone can weigh up to 157 lbs and this is not including the many pounds of linens (clean and dirty), amenities and cleaning supplies that carts are loaded with. Housekeepers are expected to push these carts to every room they clean with some hotels having rooms that are separated from the main lobby. Also, since some hotels have outdoor entrances their housekeepers are expected to push carts in all sort of weather. Once getting to the dirty room a housekeeper is required to remove all dirty linens and garbage from the room and then proceed to clean it. From the shower head to the tile floors bathrooms must be cleaned and disinfected. All traces of the previous guest must be removed especially the hair. Chrome is to be shined so no water spots show, clean linens are to be placed in proper order as well as any bathroom amenities the hotel offers, shampoo, soap, etc. Beds are to be made to specific hotel standards while the housekeeper checks the blankets and pillows for stains, tear and any leftover hairs. The room is to be dusted from the top of the highest piece of furniture or picture frame to the bottom of every chair with a disinfecting spray. The room then must be vacuumed from one end to the other leaving nothing behind. The last touch is a spray of air freshener to make the room pleasant smelling for the next guest. Not too difficult, one might think but the job must be done in less than 20 minutes and to multiple rooms in a day. This does not include the unloading or the dirty linens to laundry and emptying the cart trash containers as well as restocking the cart that a housekeeper must do.

With all this work that a housekeeper is expected to do as well as the importance of the housekeeping staff a person would think that the pay of a housekeeper would compare quite reasonably to other position held at the hotel. Sadly this assumption is not true. Annual wages for a housekeeper are often lower than any other position in the hotel with wages in the US being up to $1000 less than front desk clerk wages. With the differences in work loads between a desk clerk and a housekeeper the wage difference is disappointing.

So even though the work of a housekeeper is important, undeniably difficult and the wages are low the probability of this scenario changing is unlikely. Luckily for some housekeepers they work for companies that truly appreciate what they do and though it is not shown on a paycheck the companies do show their appreciation to these employees in other ways. From free meals, holiday parties and even whole weeks dedicated to celebrating the housekeeping staff some hospitality companies are making their housekeeping team feel appreciated.

Hotel maids, although often providing "invisible" services during your stay, can and should be tipped for good service. Tip correctly, and you show your appreciation and ensure the chambermaid will take special care with your room. Tip incorrectly, and misunderstandings can arise. Here's how to tip a hotel maid.

Here's How:

Tip daily. The same maid may not service your room every night of your stay. If you wait until check-out time to tip for the entire stay, your tip may not go to the right person.

Mark your tip clearly. Leaving cash or change in the room is not a clear enough signal, as a hotel maid must be very careful about taking anything from your room. Enclose the tip in a sealed envelope (check the desk drawer for hotel stationary) and mark it "Chambermaid."

Leave your tip in an obvious place. On the television, on a pillow, or on the bathroom counter are all common places to leave the maid's tip.

Tip according to service and hotel type. In a luxury hotel, tip about $3-5 each night. For an average hotel, $1-2 per night is fine. If the maid goes above and beyond in service, such as providing extra soaps and shampoos or folding towels in the shape of swans (for example), feel free to leave a dollar or two more.

Don't tip for poor service. Like all tips, if you're not satisfied with the service the maid is providing, don't leave a tip (or reduce the amount you would tip).

Tips:

Leave a tip in cash, not with spare change.

If you can't find an envelope, or the hotel doesn't provide one, wrap the bills in a blank sheet of paper, labeled appropriately.

When you travel internationally, find out how to write "maid" or "Chambermaid" in the local language so you can label the envelope appropriately.